...He crushed the glowing cigarette beneath his heel, grinding it purposefully into the cracked concrete. He said something to the youngsters he was with and then he took that first step that would bring him to me. I saw the looks on the faces of the others. Poor things, they were crushed by his lack of interest in either of them.

He waited for traffic to pass and the light to change, then he crossed the street in a swaggering gait meant to exhibit his superiority, his bravado, the size of his cock outlined magnificently behind the cloth of his tight ripped blue jeans. He adjusted his pants, giving his cock a special showcase as he slowed beneath the streetlight. Perhaps his way of letting me know he’d be well worth the asking price. How sweet. How enjoyable this night was going to be.

“Hey,” he said by way of greeting as he drew in front of me. “I saw you from across the street. Looking for a little action tonight?”

“What kind of action are you offering?” I asked, deepening my voice to the hypnotic tenor so familiar with my kind.

He and I were of about the same height and I saw something flicker in his eyes as he absorbed the cadence, changing the vibrations of our budding association. Suddenly there was uncertainty in his expression. He was afraid his fish would wiggle away. Inwardly, I smiled. Little did he realize that I was the bigger fish and he just a tadpole in the huge ocean of our existence. And I was going to swallow him whole.

I waited patiently for him to answer. He was nervous; I could smell it. He licked his generous lips, reached in his pocket for his cigarette pack.

I placed a cool hand over his. I projected myself as a much taller man in that instant, changing our dynamic and taking control of the situation. He looked up and into my eyes, I nudged a simple thought against the fragile wall guarding his mind. Too easy. His fingers released the package and it dropped to the ground.

It wasn’t that I controlled his mind or his movements. But the look in a vampire’s eyes—well, it did things to a human. It made them eager to comply without understanding why they were doing it. They just got this overwhelming urge to acquiesce and there was nothing anyone could do as long as the vampire held their attention. And I meant to hold his attention for a very long time tonight.

And then I remembered that Silas awaited. And it was time to reel this gorgeous talent in. I released him and it seemed he got his voice back. He blinked rapidly as though coming out of a deep sleep.

“I can give you any kind of action you want, man. You say it, I’ll play it.”

“I have a friend. There are two of us. He’s waiting in our car around the corner.”

I saw a look of wariness cross his face. And so it should.

“Two of you?” He was trying to gain time. I obviously threw him off his game a bit.

“Do you like money? Lots of it?”

That calculating look came back into his expression as he again tried to size me up, to see into my soul. How amusing, for I possessed no soul. “Well, yeah, doesn’t everyone?”

I whipped out a gold monogrammed money clip containing a fat wad of bills from my pants pocket and flashed them before his eyes. I saw the dollar signs reflected there. Then I returned the bills to my pocket. It was enough of a carrot to gain his rabid attention.

“Come with me, my friend is waiting.”

He didn’t hesitate as I thought he might. It was almost too easy.

When we reached the car, the door swung open. Ah, how I remember my own first night when that had happened. I thought he might question it, but he didn’t. He leaned forward to peer inside, keeping a wary distance, bracing his arms at the top of the door, as he studied Silas for a moment, and then turned to look at me.

“You wanna do it here?” he asked.

I shook my head. Foreplay in my mind didn’t count as “doing it here.”

“No, the car will take us home. We can be more comfortable there.”

“Home?” he repeated.

“It will allow us to get acquainted with each other. The car is a rather tight space, don’t you think, for much more than that?” I’m sure he’d performed in many a vehicle, but tonight his performance would require a grander stage, and he would far outshine any before it. Of that I was certain. He still hesitated.

I pulled out the wad of bills and handed him a couple of hundreds. He grabbed them and stuffed them into his pants pocket.

“There’s more where that came from. If you’re good.”